If you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re a descendant of Penelope and Richard Stout and are familiar with her story and want to know more. I would love to discover the truth behind Penelope’s story but facts are scarce. I'll have to settle for conjectures.

Together, we can combine our incomplete knowledge and arrive at better conclusions. So please comment.

........ Conjecture, noun, the formation of judgments or opinions on the basis of incomplete or inconclusive information. Source: Encarta Dictionary

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Was Penelope Scalped?

The earliest reference I’ve found
that claims Indians scalped Penelope was printed in 1876 by John Carroll
Power in Early Settlers of Sangamon County [IL] – 1876. Springfield, IL: E. L.
Merritt & Bro., Printers, 1876. pp 690-3

Even though John Carroll Power
cites Benedict’s book as a source, this 1876 version disagrees in many respects
with Benedict. See how many you can identify.

This garbling of a cited source
suggests that the scalping was invented or at least was an embellishment of the
original.

“STOUT, the origin of this
family in America is quite romantic. The principal points in their history may
be found in Benedict's History of the Baptists. Some of his statements are
based on the writings of an earlier historian. The following embraces all that
is known on the subject:

“Some time during the
seventeenth century, probably about 1680 or '90, a young couple just married in
Holland, embarked on a vessel bound for America. The voyage was prosperous
until they were nearing the port of New Amsterdam, now the city of New York.
The vessel was wrecked off what is now the coast of New Jersey, and nearly all
on board drowned. The young couple of Hollanders, escaped drowning and with a
small number of the passengers and crew succeeded in reaching the shore. Upon
landing they were attacked by Indians, who lay in ambush awaiting their
arrival. The whole party were tomahawked, scalped and otherwise mutilated, and
left for dead. All were dead except the wife, from Holland. She alone survived,
and although her scalp was removed and she was otherwise horribly mangled, she
had sufficient remaining strength to crawl away from the scene of the
slaughter, and secreted herself in a hollow log which was concealed by
underbrush. She lay there a day or two, during which time her mental and bodily
suffering may be imagined but cannot be described. She finally made up her mind
that there was no possibility of her escaping with life; that if she remained
quiet she would certainly die of hunger and thirst, and if she attempted to
seek sustenance, that would expose her to the Indians, who would be sure to
kill her. At this juncture, a deer, with an arrow sticking in its body, ran
past where she was. This led her to believe that Indians were near, and she
reasoned that it would be a much easier death to let them kill her, than to
endure the pangs of starvation by remaining where she was. She then summoned
all her remaining strength and dragged her body out to an open space that the
Indians might see her should they pursue the deer. In a short time three of the
savages appeared on its trail. Two of them rushed upon her with uplifted
tomahawks, but the third one, a chief, restrained them and saved her life. It
was not humanity, but gain that prompted him to this act of mercy. He took his
prisoner to New Amsterdam and there received a ransom for her. That placed her
in the hands of friends who gave her the proper surgical treatment and nursing
as she recovered. The name of her husband is not known, neither is her own
family name, nothing but her first or given name, Penelope; a name that has
stood for more than twenty-five centuries, in tradition and literature, as the
highest ideal of a true and loyal wife. It will readily be understood that I
allude to one of the creations of Homer, the father of Greek poetry. A brief
statement of the case, gleaned from his works will not be out of place here.

"When the Greeks declared war
against Troy...[omitting long paragraph onTrojan War]

“This modern Penelope had no
such doubts to contend with. The death of her first husband was only too sure,
having been witnessed by her own eyes. After her recovery, she became
acquainted with and married an Englishman by the name of Richard Stout. They
then went over into New Jersey, made themselves a home and raised a family of
twelve sons. One of them, Jonathan Stout, and his family, were the founders of
the Hope well settlement, in Hunterdon county, New Jersey, where Hopewell
Baptist Church was afterwards constituted. Of the first fifteen members, nine
were Stouts. The church was organized at the house of a Stout, and for forty
years their meetings were held chiefly at the houses of the Stouts; after which
they erected their first house of worship. In 1790, two of the deacons and four
of the elders were Stouts. Jonathan Stout lived until his descendants were
multiplied to one hundred and seventeen....

“The Stouts very justly take pride in their family history, and being mostly Baptists, they take pride in their Baptist history also. When they meet a stranger by the name of Stout, who manifests a disposition to claim relationship, they apply one test only in their family history. They do not ask him to pronounce the word Shibboleth, but ascertain if he has any knowledge of PENELOPE, and if he knows nothing of her, they know nothing of him. In other words, they do not cultivate his acquaintance, in the direction of relationship, any further.”

The same passage (minus the long-winded
paragraph about the Trojan War) also appeared in PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL
ALBUM OF SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS , Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891p 493 and in PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF
SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS by Joseph Wallace, M. A. of the
Springfield Bar (The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL 1904).

The novel ideas in this passage
are

Voyage about 1680 or 1690

A mention of New Jersey but not Sandy Hook

Indians lay in ambush at time of shipwreck

Tomahawked and scalped

Three Indians rescued her

Twelve sons

However, I do like their method
of distinguishing Stouts who are relatives from non-relatives.

1 comment:

The closest thing I know of was Allen Joseph Stout's hand written journal which hasn't survived to the present time. The most quoted copy is at BYU, but the copy I have was copied from the handwritten one, and claims to be a more accurate copy. This was a journal that was given to him by his children in 1883. It was started when he was 67 years old to replace the one he had kept in earlier years, but was burned by a "careless" housekeeper he had hired after being widowed. The only thing that was said in this version is referring to Richard: "married a woman who had been scalped and tomahawked and left amongst the dead. and from thence came all of the numerous hosts of Stouts now in the United States"